What is Normal?
by Scholar of Imagination
Summary: The Doctor has lost another companion, but soon meets a girl in America who is somehow tied to impending doom. He doesn't want his hearts to be broken again, but can the Doctor really travel alone?
1. Chapter 1

She sat on the hill overlooking her neighborhood. The yellow leaves rustled in the branches above her head, falling down, down, down and landing in her long golden hair. The thunder rumbled, closer this time. She buried her head deeper into her knees. This wasn't supposed to happen anymore; she was supposed to be free. But that feeling was there all the same: something, somewhere, was wrong.

* * *

The Doctor sighed, his hearts breaking. Why did they always leave? Was it his fault?

He ran his fingers lightly over the TARDIS' many buttons and pushed down resolutely on the one for "random." He didn't care where he went, as long as it was away from here, so he would let the TARDIS decide; it always knew where he would be needed.

The whooshing finally ended, and the Doctor stuck his head curiously out the door. He wasn't quite sure where he was, except that it was most definitely the planet Earth. His ship had landed at the top of a hill in the middle of a suburban neighborhood; nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary, except for a girl. Sitting alone. Under a tree.

And a storm was brewing.

* * *

She heard footsteps behind her, but they didn't sound like anyone she knew. She whipped her head around as she scrambled to her feet; strange middle-aged men did not usually approach teenage girls for anything considered good by any moral standards.  
"It's all right; I'm not going to hurt you!" the man said, putting his hands up in a gesture of reassurance. She relaxed a little; he sounded nice enough, and his eyes - they seemed older than the rest of him, almost wise, as if they had seen more than their fair share of suffering. To top it all off, the long coat, wild hair, and British accent came together to produce someone almost attractive...

"How do I know that you're not just here to kidnap me or something? You don't happen to have a lost puppy, do you? Or some candy in your car?"  
"No, nothing like that. I'm just want to know if you've noticed anything strange going on," the man replied nonchalantly.  
"Strange like weird, strange like interesting..?"  
"Just strange." The girl ran a calculating gaze over the man in front of her; he waited.  
She looked at him and he gazed steadily back. There was something about him, something that made her trust him just a tiny bit. There was something about him that made her suspect that he wouldn't laugh at her, or tell her she was just being silly, or that it was all in her head.  
"Anything, you said?"  
"Yup."  
The girl closed her eyes and allowed a shudder to run through her body. Taking a deep breath, her eyes still screwed shut, she told him: "Something's wrong, I can feel it. I don't know what, I don't know where, but some place out there, there's something that's not right."

* * *

The Doctor stared intently at the girl in front of him. She looked young, but was she? There was something about her, something that told him that she understood-or at least was able to understand- a lot more than most people these days. But what exactally were "these days?" When was he?  
"Can you tell me what year it is?"  
"I'm not insane, if that's what you're wondering."  
"No, no, nothing like that. Can you tell me?"  
"Middle of November. 2012. New York," she added, rather sarcastically, he thought, and while that explained the American accent, he chose to ignore it.  
"How old are you?"  
"I don't think I should tell you that." What was he to do with planet Earth; they cared too much about safety. "And I have a name, you know."  
"Well, then?" She looked at him as if to ask if he was kidding. "Ah, of course. So you can't tell me anything?"  
"Not really. Well, I could tell you the time, as long as you don't get too close."  
"I don't _need_ the time, what I need is to figure out what's going on here. You know something's not right, I know something's not right, but what is it?"  
"It's probably nothing, honestly! It's this mind of mine. It's always making up stories, telling me things are true when they're really not. Or it used to..."  
"What do you mean?"  
"Where do you live? Under a rock? Ever heard of something called an anxiety disorder?"  
"Yes, but it's not a disorder; it's something you humans made up to explain something you can't understand." At this she lifted her eybrows incredulously.  
"It's true," he continued. "Back in the Stone Age it was an advantage; it kept the early humans alive. It's evolved out of so many people now that it's considered an abnormality." She wrinkled her brow, apparently digesting this new piece of information. She was taking this surprisingly well, he thought.  
"So what you're saying is..."  
"I'm saying that I'm the Doctor, and I need your help."


	2. Chapter 2

"The Doctor," she said, totally unconvinced. "Doctor who?"  
"Just 'the Doctor,'" he replied, as if he had heard that question a million times before.  
"All riiiight," she said, flopping back down onto the grass, "but why do you need my help? There are thousands of people you could have asked, why me?"  
"I _told_ you: call it what you want, fear, intuition, but you know that something's wrong and I need to know what it is." The Doctor sat down next to her. She moved away a few inches.  
"But why _me_? I'm no one special; there must be hundreds of others just like me, people with a better idea of what's going on. Go find one of them." The Doctor was silent. The girl saw his eyes flick back and forth, as if he was having an inner debate with himself.  
She looked up an the sky. The wind was picking up and the grey clouds were racing across the heavens. She closed her eyes, breathing deeply of that eriee calm before the storm. She would have to go in soon, unless she wanted to get soaked; and while that sounded like fun, she did not want to be the one to mop the floor.  
Suddenly, the Doctor grabbed her hand and jumped up, "Come on; I've got to show you something!"  
She meant to pull away, she really did. But something kept her hand in his. Something kept her sprinting behind him, even though it took her three steps to keep up with one of his. And, call it insanity, boredom, whatever you like, but something made her follow him into a little blue box labeled "POLICE" that was sitting in her backyard.

* * *

It was the only way to explain why it had to be her. And besides, whatever it was, it was coming.

The Doctor pulled the Nameless Girl into the TARDIS and slammed the door behind them. He watched as her blue eyes widened the slightest bit as she took in the interior of his spaceship. Unlike the others, she didn't say anything, she simply nodded her head and broke into a wide smile.  
"Aren't you going to say anything about how it's bigger on the inside?"  
"No. I've read so many books that I'll believe almost anything now." Hmph. He liked it when they stood there speechless, blabbering about how it was bigger on the inside. There was no time to brood, however, he had to think!  
"This is the TARDIS: Time And Relative Dimention In Space. It takes me places, places I need to be. And it took me to you."  
"So you listened to a police box that's not a police box that can't even talk?"  
"Oi! She's sensative!" The Doctor raced around the room, pressing buttons and throwing levers. He needed to win her trust, but how? Suddenly...  
"My name's Bridgette, by the way."  
"Well, Bridgette, it's very nice to meet you." He stopped long enough to shake her hand. Now he was getting somewhere, he thought, pushing a final switch. "Do you want to help?"  
"Of course!" she replied, running up next to him.  
"I need you to sit down and be afraid and try to figure out why."  
"But I can't!"  
"Of course you can, you just need to try." They always underestimated themselves in the beginning; this was nothing to worry about.  
No, he had to stop. She wasn't going to become like the others. The Others That Left.  
"You're not listening." She was getting angry now. Didn't she understand that the fate of the entire universe could be at stake? "I said I. Can't. Do. It. Don't you get it?" Apparently not. He'd have to spell it out to her, he supposed.  
"Listen to me for a second," he said, taking a moment to push her down onto the floor, "I know it's hard to believe, but the safety of the whole universe could hinge on this. And if you can walk into a blue box that's bigger on the inside and barely bat your eye, then I know that you can save the world too." The Nameless Girl - Bridgette - looked up at him. The Doctor no sooner thought that she looked on the edge of tears than a heavy drop of water began to run down her cheek. She wiped it away hurridly.  
"Sorry; I don't know what's gotten into me."  
"Culture shock, it'll wear off. I'll make you a deal: if you try to feel the same way you did just before I showed up and tell me when you get there, I'll be able to help you figure out what it is. Okay?"  
"How'll you be able to do that?"  
"I can go inside your mind and find things that you don't even know are there."  
"Are you sure about that?"  
"Absolutly; you'll be fine."  
"All right, then. What are you going to do in the meanwhile?"  
"Oh, I don't know...maybe I'll stop by in Barcelona, the planet, you know. And then perhaps I could catch a show - maybe the first one in Ancient Greece. You could come too, if we're done yet." The Doctor looked back over at his new friend, wondering what she thought of all this. He was pleased, however, to see that she hadn't been listening to him at all; instead, her eyes were closed, her brow furrowed, and she looked very far away indeed.


	3. Chapter 3

Contrary to the Doctor's beliefs, Bridgette had been listening, sort of. Something about there being a planet named Barcelona (wasn't that in Spain?) and going to a show in Ancient Greece, but his voice had faded away as she began to pull inside herself. She could do this, she knew she could. It was simply a matter of overthinking and letting her imagination run away from her. Her best events.  
She stared into the darkness behind her eyelids and watched the flashes of yellow and purple light drift around. The lights got fewer and farther between as the inky blackness closed in around her. There it was: that niggling little idea that there was something coming, something too big for her to handle. A pit began to form in her stomach and she tried to shove it away, knowing that that would make it worse.  
She thought of all the things that had happened that day. A strange man who called himself the Doctor had appeared out of nowhere with a blue box that was bigger on the inside. Maybe he had drugged her and this was all a dream. Maybe she would wake up in a cellar somewhere, beaten and bloody. Maybe her family would call the police and report her missing. They might send out a search team, but they would never find her body...  
Bridgette's mind took the story and ran with it, telling her the worst case senario. Her heart beat faster and faster. She knew this was all irrational; she had to get this under control, but with her mind a million miles away, she did the only thing she could think of:  
"DOCTOR!"

The Doctor was at her side in an instant.  
"You're all right; I'm here. Just hold on a second." If he hadn't known what was going on, he might have been almost worried. Her breathing was fast and heavy and her hands were shaking. She was rocking back and forth in an attempt to calm herself. "This won't hurt, I promise. Try to help me if you can, try to show me where it is."  
He put his hands on either side of her head and closed his eyes. No wonder she was this worked up, he thought as he waded through her thoughts. He could see how this would no longer be an advantage in the modern-day world.  
He could feel her start to relax a little; she knew that he was trying to help. The nightmares began to fade as she let go of them and began to focus on the ambiguous sense of wrongness. The Doctor waited. He would give her a chance before he went plowing through her mind, as she was in no condition to close imaginary doors.  
Bridgette slowly was able to lead him to her right occipital lobe, right on the back of her head.  
_Here_, she thought.  
_Mind if I look around?_  
_Go right ahead. _  
_All right, but keep focusing._  
He flipped though the contents of that part of her brain. It was normally the image center, so why here? At any rate, that made it easy to find the feeling amid the pictures. He zeroed in on it, and was shocked by what he saw. There must have been some connection with the temporal lobe too, because the picture he saw was accompanied by a sound. A very loud, very unnerving sound:  
_EX-TER-MIN-ATE!_

* * *

Bridgette's eyes snapped open as the Doctor sat back on his heels.  
"What was that?" she demanded. The Doctor hesitated.  
"Well..."  
"You might as well tell me, seeing as I'm in this now for better or for worse. And don't try to keep me in the dark; I've lived under a rock for long enough. I need to know."  
"It's a dalek." The Doctor sighed and stood up. They're not from here, they just want to take it over. But why you?"  
"It's alive? It looks like a robot to me."  
"No, there's a creature inside of it, now stop asking questions for two seconds!" The Doctor stood in the middle of the TARDIS, pressing buttons and throwing switches seemingly at random. A whooshing sound began, making the TARDIS sound as if it were alive. Bridgette stood up and looked at him, opening and closing her mouth several times, like a fish. So many questions! So many new things to learn! Unable to bear it any longer, she went over next to the Doctor.  
"Can I help?" Silence. "I'll start asking questions again." The Doctor continued his frenzy.  
"HEY!" Bridgette yelled, startling him out of his revealry. "I want answers; I want to do something! And if you're not going to tell me, then I'll just walk right out the door and leave you alone to your monster hunting.  
"Oh, I wouldn't do that if I were you." That smile worried her, yet it piqued her curiosity. She looked at the door and then back at the Doctor. He nodded encouragingly. She walked over as if in a trace. She didn't even bother to venture a guess as to what was going to be out there; she suspected that the wildest thing she could come up with wouldn't be even close to what was she was about to see.  
She was right.  
Outer space was darker than the darkest night she had ever seen, more vast than the largest ocean. And the stars. Oh, they were more beautiful than they ever were back on Earth.  
Bridgette stood there at the door of the TARDIS in amazement as the Doctor came over beside her.  
"Well?" He sounded like a small child showing off his prized possession.  
"There are more things in heaven and on earth, Horatio,/ Than are dreamt of in our philosophy."  
"I couldn't have put it better myself," replied the Doctor.

* * *

**I realize that this sort of sound like ****_Asylum of the Daleks_****, but I promise that I came up with this idea before I watched the episode!**


	4. Chapter 4

"So these 'daleks,'" Bridgette asked as the Doctor spun back around and went to go pilot his ship,

"What do they want, exactly?"

"They're always trying to take over your planet. They think that they're the most superior race and no

one else deserves to live."

"Okay, I'm just going to take that sentence as it is."

'It's probably better that way. So! The daleks want you for some reason why would they want you oh

that's tricky!"

"You're saying they want _me_?" Bridgette trotted back to his side. She had no trouble understanding his

run-on sentences, apparently, and she didn't seem bothered by it in the least.

"Yup. Now why would they want you? What makes you different from everybody else?"

"Not much. I mean, I like to go against mainstream culture, the anxiety, I've had heart surgery a couple

of times, I like to research random things for fun..." She trailed off.

"Wait, what?"

"I like to research interesting things, like there was this time that I got really into footbinding..."

"No, the thing before that!"

"Oh, I've had a couple of heart surgeries because I was born with a heart defect."

"Ahhh..." The Doctor was amazed at how calm she sounded about this whole thing, as if it was just a

fact of life, which for her, he had to remind himself, it was. And that was when the lightbulb went off

above his head. "OOOOOOHHHHHHHHH!"

"What?"

"That's it!" The Doctor began rummaging around the TARDIS, looking for something.

"What's it?" For once she was confused. How could she not see it?

"You, Bridgette, are a survivor. And not only have you survived, you've come out of it even stronger

than you were before. The daleks have recognized that, and that spirit is just what they need to do the

same: survive."

"No, I'm not. I've just taken the challenges that have been thrown at me, been incredibly patient and

brave, and gotten through it! I'm just - just Bridgette!"

"Then we'll just have to change that, won't we?" The Doctor finally found what he had been looking for

and tossed it to Bridgette, who just barely caught it.

"Why do I need a hearing aid?" She turned it over in her hands as the Doctor came over with his sonic

screwdriver, which he pointed at the device in Bridgette's hand.

"It's not a hearing aid anymore. We need to find out how the daleks plan to take you, and they're

clearly invading your mind somehow. Put this on, and if they so much as look at you, we'll know about

it."

Bridgette seemed doubtful, but put it on over her right ear. "So more importantly, what's that?" She

pointed at his screwdriver.

"It's a sonic screwdriver, of course!"

"Which is...?"

"Argh, you humans don't know anything!"

"Sorry if I'm too normal for you," Bridgette replied sarcastically. "Can I look at it?"

"Maybe later." When he knew she wouldn't blow anything up by accident. Turning back to the console,

he asked, "So! The whole of time and space are yours! Where do you want to go?"

"What about the daleks?"

"What about them?" The Doctor turned back around to see that his new friend had hoisted herself up

onto one of the TARDIS' tree-like collumns. "And what are you doing?"

"What does it look like I'm doing?" She looked at him as if it should be obvious, "Goofing around!

Anyways, don't we have to go hunt down the daleks and save the universe or something?"

"They'll come to you, so you might as well have some fun while playing live bait!"

**So I think I have the rest of this story planned out, I just need to get to the action! Sorry if it's dragging a bit...**

**Sort of an awkward place to stop, but I want to switch PoV!**

**Reviews, comments, edits, constructive criticism still appreciated!**


	5. Chapter 5

Bridgette twisted herself into a more comfortable position in the crook of the pillar, thinking. "These things are

dangerous, right?"

"Uh-huh."

"They want to kill of the entire world?"

"Ah...yep!"

"If it's true that you have all of time and space at your fingertips, then let's go someplace boring." The Doctor stared

at her in amazement.

"Why would you want to go somewhere boring? Boring places are just so...BORING!"

Bridgette was getting a little angry now. Didn't he get it? Did he only think about himself and having adventures?

What had happened to the whole let's-go-save-the-universe attitude? "Doctor, there are over 6 billion people on this

planet; I am not going to let a single one die because of me!" The Doctor's incredulous face relaxed into one of

understanding.

"Bridgette. The Nameless Girl. Nameless because you're the whole human race. You're brilliant, you are!" The Doctor

smiled, shaking his head. "A regular Jimminy Cricket! I always wanted one of those, a little talking cricket. I have yet

to find a planet with small, talking crickets...Anyways, you want boring? I'll give you boring! I'll give you the most

exciting boring you've ever seen!" And with that, the Doctor hit a button, and the TARDIS jerked. "HANG ON!"

"OOF! Thanks for the warning!" Bridgette yelled over the deafening VWROP-ing of the ship as she almost fell out of

her perch.

The TARDIS eventually came to a halt with a jolt. "Are we there yet?" Bridgette asked the Doctor, smirking.

"We are indeed! After you, m'lady!" He bowed, gesturing to the door. Bridgette hopped down and skidded to the

door. This was all completely illogical. She was going to be facing non-robots who wanted to eat her sometime in the

near future, and space was one thing, but another planet? She shouldn't be so excited, she shouldn't be getting her

hopes up. Soon she would be jolted awake by the jarring beeping of the alarm clock, forced to return to boring old

reality.

But then she opened the door, and she knew that there was no way this could be a dream. Even with her wild

imagination, she could never dream up something like this.

It was beautiful.

The TARDIS had landed on a hill overlooking a sparkling waterfall and a gently flowing stream, Behind them was a

meadow, dotted here and there with little blue flowers, that seemed to go on forever. A lush green forest surrounded

the entire area, looking slightly sinister, but more like the perfect place for an adventure.

"It's perfect!" The whisper seemed to hang in the air for a moment before it floated away. The Doctor had not yet

emerged from the TARDIS, and Bridgette took that chance to do something she desperately wanted to do. She

walked around the outside of the blue box, running her hand over the wood and marveling at its existence. It still

seemed so impossible...

She had just reached the door again when the Doctor emerged, a picnic basket in one hand and a faded blue and

yellow quilt in the other. He raised his eyebrows knowingly, and she responded with a guilty smile.

"You know, your box is a lot bigger on the inside."

"Really? I hadn't noticed! Well, _allons-y_!" And with that, he grabbed her hand and they ran together down the hill.

* * *

Bridgette yanked her boots and socks off as the Doctor, rather domestically, she thought, laid out the picnic blanket.

She had barely gotten her jeans rolled up when she went splashing off into the river. It wasn't warm, but it wasn't cold

either. It was that inviting, watery temperature that made you sure that you were part fish.

"Where are we, Doctor?" She turned around, brushing her hair out of her eyes.

"Halcyonian, in the Loginquitas galaxy. It's completely flat, you know. See those trees?" He pointed across the river.

"After about half a mile, it just drops off. You'd fall right out into space if you weren't careful."

"I suppose that's disregarding gravity, right?"

The Doctor ran his fingers through his hair and sighed. "I don't know, but I wouldn't fancy trying it. Would you?"

"Not particularly." How strange this all was. She wasn't on Earth, but this place was so much like it. It was like all that

"appearance vs. reality" stuff in English class. Ugh. Like that Hamlet essay she still had to write. Maybe her teacher

would accept an essay about this instead?

Bridgette pushed all thoughts of homework out of her head. Here she was, on another planet, and she was thinking

about homework! What was this madness?

But when those thoughts floated out of her head, there was room for thinking about other things. Like the daleks.

"So were you kidding about the daleks? Why aren't they here? Maybe they're hiding on the bottom of the planet,

waiting for us to get curious and go exploring! Maybe..."

"Hold it, hold it! For one thing, we would know if they were anywhere near here. Remember that earpiece you're

wearing? That was part of the reason for getting you off of Earth; it's going to take them a while to track you down

again. As for them being underneath us, that would be a possibility, but, again, we would know if they were within a

hundred miles of here."

It was nice to hear the reassurance, even if it was completely illogical evidence. But by this point, logic was pretty

much out of the question anyways.

Bridgette clambered out of the water and went to sit on the blanket across from the Doctor, only to be handed a

piece of chocolate cake. Which was as delicious as it looked.

When Bridgette looked back up, she saw the Doctor holding out a fork with a very adult-ish look on his face.

"Can I help you?" She asked, trying to feign innocence but failing on account of the large quantity of frosting on her

face. The goofy smile on her face won the Doctor over, and he laughed as tossed the pro-offered utensils back into

the picnic basket.

"This chocolate," the Doctor said, digging into his cake with his fingers as if he had never done anything different his

entire life, "came from a planet where they mine it, like gold. They have entire caverns made of the stuff!"

But just as Bridgette was about to reply, a beeping sound began to come from the Doctor's coat pocket. Bridgette

blinked as her head pulsed, trying to appear calm while fighting back waves of panic.

"Doctor, you better have a plan or, so help me, I'm never going anywhere with you again."


	6. Chapter 6

**Sorry it took so long for this; I haven't had any bursts of inspiration lately. If you have any ideas, I'd love to hear them!**

* * *

The Doctor's hearts leapt and then fell, as if they had forgotten about a step in the dark. She had practicaly told that she might be willing to travel with him, but it was overshadowed by the chance they he could lose her before their adventures even began. He broke his gaze from Bridgette's to look at the readings on his screwdriver. He could tell how the daleks were trying to win her over now. But he couldn't tell her; they might be finished before they even began.

"Well, you've a choice now: we can keep running, go someplace else, put off facing them until we have a better plan, or we can face them now, with some plan that we throw together in the next, oh," he glanced at his sonic screwdriver, "three minutes. What d'you think?"

Bridgette looked at him incredulously. "Why are you asking me? You're the mysterious man with a strange blue box. What do you think we should do?" The Doctor could see the fear behind her eyes, fear that she was trying he best to hide behind attitude. Maybe it wasn't fair of him to put her in this position. He didn't even know why he was putting this in her hands.

But he did.

He didn't want to lose another one.

It couldn't be his fault this time.

He wanted an excuse if it happened again. Somthing to explain away the pain.

"Doctor," She was quiet this time, resolute, "I think we both know the way we're going to go. We're probably down to a minute and a half by now. What's the plan?"

"What we're going to do," he said, jumping up and slipping back into his coat, "is talk to them. We'll find out what they want, maybe negotiate."

"Like a surveillance mission. "

"Right."

"Remember, intelligence is what makes people dangerous."

"Did you just make that up on the spot?" She was becoming more surprising by the minute.

"No, I got it from a book. Best weapons in the world, really. I'm sorry, I'm babbling now. I tend to do that when I'm not sure what to say."

"We're going to need all the help we can get." He felt so grim, but tried to mirror his friend's brave face for her sake. "Ready?"

"Am I ready to fight a living trashcan? No, I'm not ready at all."

"There's only one thing to do then." He slipped his steady hand into her shaking one and squeezed reassuringly, "Allons-y!"

* * *

The pair walked back up the hill and came to stand with their backs to the TARDIS, facing the open field of flowers. The looked up at the sky, waiting. The Doctor glanced at his new friend, quickly so she wouldn't know he was worried about her. Even though he could only see the sides of her eyes, he could tell that they held all the expectation, awe, and fear of her predecessors.

By now, he knew it was useless, he knew that Bridgette was meant to be his new companion. She would have to survive this, however, if he even wanted the chance of traveling with her.

Then, as if cued by the director of a television show, the blue sky was filled with hundreds of black and silver object. The daleks.

They landed like a swarm of gigantic metal bees, crushing the delicate flowers beyond repair.

"EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE!" The noise was deafening, and Bridgette took her hand from the Doctor to press them over her ears. The Doctor inwardly cringed: feeling fear was one thing, but he did not think it would be an advantage to display it to their enemies.

Suddenly, with a burst of fury, Bridgette shouted at the top of her lungs: "I'M! NOT! LISTENING!"

The army of daleks went silent.

"Thank you." If you looked at her now, you would never have known that she had lost control.

"What do you want from her?" The Doctor took the silence as a chance to speak before chaos began again.

A lone dalek, apparently the leader, moved a few feet ahead of the pack. "SHE WOULD MAKE A GOOD DALEK!"

"I'm just really curious," The Doctor scratched his head nonchalantly, "what do you mean by that, exactly?"

"SHE IS INTELLEGENT. SHE IS BRAVE. SHE CAN SURVIVE. THE DALEKS MUST SURVIVE! SURVIVE! SURVIVE!" The chant was taken up by the crowd of monsters again.

"So what do you want to do with me?" Bridgette shouted again, and, as before, the noise died down.

"WE WILL MAKE YOU ONE OF US! YOU WILL BE OUR LEADER! YOU WILL LEAD US TO VICTORY!" So that's why she had a strange kind of control over them, they looked up to her.

"Let me think about it...um, NO!"

"THEN YOU LEAVE US NO CHOICE!" By this point, the lead dalek had inched itself so close to the Doctor and Bridgette that it was barely ten feet away from them, but it was Bridgette who strode forward, hands on hips, making the gap only about two feet.

"Try me."


	7. Chapter 7

Bridgette had no idea what had come over her; she knew she sounded braver than she felt. The look on the Doctor's face what she had approached the dalek leader all but convinced her this was idiocy. But she had to do something. She wouldn't go down without a fight.

As she stood face-to-eyestalk with the dalek, the Doctor shouted, "Bridgette! Whatever it is you're thinking of doing, you don't have to do it! It's dangerous! They could kill you!"

"They won't," Bridgette replied, "they want me alive too much. Doctor?" Suddenly, she felt very afraid and very alone. All the bravado had left her voice as she reached out behind her with one hand, relieved when her new friend grasped it tightly.

"I'm here."

"Doctor, I'm about to do something very stupid, but if you can help it," her voice quavered, "don't let me d- become one of them."

And before the Doctor could convince her otherwise, before she could lose her nerve, she reached up and took the device out of her ear, dropping it to the ground.

Her unconscious body hit the ground three seconds later.

* * *

There was nothing for a while, as it usually is when one is unconscious. Slowly, however, Bridgette seemed to regain her mental faculties. She couldn't move her body, but she was precisely where she wanted to be.

The dark space where she kept her dreams and imagination. Her best arsenal.

_WHERE HAVE YOU TAKEN ME?_ No need to ask who that was.

_My mind. I may have the home field advantage, but it's just you and me, dalek. I don't have the Doctor, and you don't have an army. Or any weapons, come to think of it._

_EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE!_

_Oh, just shut up! If you can get into my mind, I can keep you here!_

_YOU WILL NOT SPEAK TO A DAAAALLLEEKKK THAT WAY!_

_Who are you, my mother?_

_I AM YOUR MASTER! YOU WILL DO AS I SAY!_

_As of right now, I have no allegiance to you. And besides, I thought I was supposed to be your master?_

_YOU ARE JUST A PUNY HUMAN! YOU ARE NOTHING TO A DAAALLLEEKKK!_ There. She had it. It had fallen right into her trap.

_What makes daleks so special? Prove to me that I should want to join you. It was a command, not a question._

_DAAALLLLEEEKKKKSSS ARE SUPERIOR!_

_Yeah, yeah, I know that much by now._

_DDAAAALLLLEEKS DO NOT NEED TO FEAR! DAAALLLLEEEKKKKSSS DO NOT LOVE! WE HAVE NOTHING BUT AMBITION! HUUUMMMMAAANNS HAVE FEEELLLIINGSS! THEY MAKE YOU WEAK!_

_You're wrong._

_WHAT DID YOU SAY?_

_I said, YOU'RE WRONG! Fear? Love? Those are our weaknesses? NO! Those are our STRENGTHS! THEY'VE kept us alive this long! Take away my feelings, and you take away everything that makes me human! Everything that makes me ME! SO GO AHEAD! Turn me into one of you! But I promise you, if you do that, I'd be more useful to you if I was dead!_

_WITH FEELINGS YOU ARE USELESS! YOUR MIND IS PATHETIC!_

Bridgette was mad now. Furious. She was losing control, loosing rationality: _I AM NOT WEAK! AND I CAN PROVE IT!_

And with that, she began to think. She began to feel. She felt as she had never felt before. She twisted her mind around her memories, wandering up and down the hallways of her mind palace.

Wadding through piles of useless, random facts that had been stored away for years, she remembered her friends. The times they'd had. She pictured each of their faces in turn, filling her heart with them.

She thought of everything she had been through. The pain. The confusion. The impatience. The fear.

She remembered her family. They had given her everything, and now she would do the same for them.

And she thought of the Doctor. The TARDIS. What else was out there? Only he knew.

And she would too.

And then it was all too much, and her mind palace was flooded with a cerulean light before everything went dark again.


	8. Chapter 8

"BRIDGETTE!" the Doctor shouted as his friend's unconscious body hit the ground with a muffled thump. Terrified, his fingers found the pulse in her neck, which, to his slight relief, was rapid but strong. He shook her, perhaps harder than was absolutely necessary, and when she didn't wake, turned to his old stand-by: insulting species. "What have you done to her, you oversized rubbish bins ?" When the leader didn't answer, the daleks began murmured among themselves, as well as daleks could, at any rate. "Well?" the Doctor prompted.

"WE HAVE DONE NOTHING! IT WOULD APPEAR THAT YOUR COMPANION HAS TAKEN OUR LEADER HOSTAGE!"

"What do you mean?"

"SHE LET HIM INTO HER MIND AND SHE HAS TRAPPED HIM THERE!"

"And what is _that_ supposed to mean?"

He was stalling for time now, keeping his enemies occupied. He was vulnerable right now, and the longer he kept the daleks talking, the longer he had to formulate a plan. A real one this time.

"IT MEANS THAT THE DALEKS WILL BE VICTORIOUS!"

Well, _that_ cleared everything up, the Doctor thought. He looked down at Bridgette, whose head he had cradled in his lap. He watched as her brow furrowed, and he realized that the battle was all in her head, literally, and there was nothing he could do.

He should have told her, warned her, when he had first understood what the daleks were trying to do. He should have warned her that they were trying to use her against herself. That they would make her doubt herself.

And now it was too late; she was beyond his help. He didn't dare try going into her mind again; the human brain was a delicate thing, and he was surprised that hers hadn't imploded yet, a dalek consciousness taking up residence alongside her own. If she even survived this...

"YOU'RE WRONG!" Bridgette shouted, still unconscious, and the Doctor's hearts skipped a beat. The daleks began to screech indignantly, a loose telepathic link allowing them to react to the duel taking place inside his companion's head. The Doctor's spirits rose; perhaps all was not lost, And no matter how impossible, he would help Bridgette in any way he could.

"Oh, yes!" The Doctor roared at the crowd in front of him, leaping to his feet as carefully as possible. "You hear that? She's not giving up! And neither am I!"

The Doctor whipped his sonic screwdriver out of his pocket and began to fiddle with it. He would set it to explode and throw it into the middle of the dalek army. While it wouldn't take out all of them, maybe it would break the psychic link between Bridgette and the lead dalek. Or, he thought for the ump-teenth time, it would at least buy them some time.

Just as the Doctor was about to launch his precious screwdriver to its doom, there was an explosion. The Doctor froze and stared blankly at the instrument still in his hand. It hadn't been the source of the noise, so what...

"RETREAT! RETREAT!"

The daleks? Afraid? The Doctor finally looked up, his eyes coming to rest on the lead dalek.

Or what was left of it, anyway.

The head, if it could be called a head, had been blown to smithereens, igniting a few tongues of flame. The eyestalk had been flung into the air, landing with a metallic clang fifty feet away, and patches of soot marred the previously pristine surface of the creature.

The Doctor had barely had time to take in what was happening when the daleks began to rise into the air. No longer the cohesive army, they scattered back into the sky like a very confused swarm of ants.

And then they were gone. All of them. It would have appeared that the whole thing had never happened, if not for the field of crushed flowers. And the exploded dalek.

* * *

**I'm actually quite proud of this chapter; I like how it's happening at the same time as the previous one. Any comments? PLEASE? If you're following, why? What do you like about it? What don't you like about it? Any grammar nazis (like me) want to nit-pick? Brit-pick? Doctor-pick? Things that seem ooc? Anything you need cleared up? **

**P.S. I can't believe I'm almost done with this! It will be the first thing I've finished since...forever. YAY!**

**P.P.S. So I think I have enough words on my account to be a beta. Thoughts? Should I? Shouldn't I? Anyone want to do it for me? Not really sure how this works...PM-ing? Anyone want me to read and review a story for fun? Grammar? Punctuation?**

**P.P.P.S. I sound desperate, don't I. I don't mean to. I'm not. Just bored. I NEED A CASE!**

**P.P.P.P.S. Anyone seen "The Bells of Saint John" yet and want to talk about it? :)**


	9. Chapter 9

Just as Bridgette had experienced the sudden nothingness of unconsciousness, so did she experience the sudden everything-ness that came with its reversal. She felt sun on her closed eyelids, breeze brushing her ears, and dirt in her hair, yet it all made sense in that unexplainable way usually confined to the land of dreams.

Rocking her head back and forth in this way was so relaxing, and maybe it would put all her thoughts back where they belonged, make her head stop aching. Maybe...

"Bridgette? Can you hear me? It's over now; you did it. You're safe." It was the harsh light and high-pitched buzzing of the sonic screwdriver that finally got her to open her eyes.

But it was the look of fearful victory on his face that brought it all rushing back to her.

Bridgette sat up as quickly as her body would allow her, black sparkles clouding her vision. The quiet of the planet had become almost eerie, the whistling of the wind made her expect a tumbleweed to tumble by. Her eyes immediately fell onto the charred remains of the dalek. "Did I do that?"

"I think so," the Doctor said, scratching his head.

Bridgette was silent for a minute, staring blankly at the cloud-speckled sky, her scrambled brain working overtime to try to make some sense of what had happened. Suddenly, she scrambled to her feet and walked, trance-like, over to the only remains of the battle she had just fought, the Doctor trailing behind her.

Bridgette trailed her fingers through the ash on the dalek casing before pulling her hand back as if she had been burned. She felt strangely empty inside.

But then the space was filled with red-hot anger. The kind that made her want to tear everything apart. How dare the daleks do this to her! She had worked so hard, and they had almost ruined it! She had been free, and they had very nearly cast her back into the pits of hell.

The anger threatened to overflow, and Bridgette kicked the metal shell with all her might, causing the front panel to fall off.

Revealing the creature within.

And draining her anger away.

She saw what she had done, and now her heart broke. She had killed it. A living, breathing creature and she, Bridgette, had killed it. She was no better than the dalek itself. The numb feeling had returned.

But not for long, as she felt a warm hand slip into hers, causing a single salty tear to slide down her cheek.

"It's not your fault, you know," The Doctor said quietly. "Whatever you did to it, it would have been far worse if you hadn't."

"But even if it is an ugly octopus in a trashcan-thing, it's still a..._thing_. And it died because of me!"

"Tell me why it died." The Doctor's blunt nature would have taken Bridgette aback had she not been in shock, but she was desperate to share her burden with someone, anyone.

"It's sort of fuzzy...but I remember letting it into my mind. I thought I could reason with it, out-logic it. Or at least get it so confused that it would...not take over the world or whatever. It told me that I was weak, that I wasn't worth anything except as a dalek. Because I could feel. But I told it it was wrong. And then I..._felt_. And then it...went away," she finished rather lamely.

"The thing is," the Doctor explained, hands in his pockets, as the two slowly made their way back up the hill, "daleks don't have feelings. Anger and hate, sure, but not _human_ emotions, like love or fear. It tried to make you doubt yourself, and you fought back the only way you could: with everything that makes you _you_. You didn't kill it, Bridgette; it just couldn't handle your human-ness when it tried to assima-turn you into one of them."

"But..."

"Bridgette," the Doctor turned on his heels, and she locked eyes with him, "did you _mean_ to kill it?"

His chocolate brown gaze was kind, but Bridgette's voice quavered when she answered him. "No."

"Then it's not your fault, I promise."

"Okay."

The two were almost back at the TARDIS when the Doctor spoke up again. "An 'ugly octopus in a trashcan-thing?' Really?"

"Well, it is!" Bridgette rejoined seriously. But then she saw the goofy grin on the Doctor's face and dissolved into laughter.

* * *

**Thanks so much to everyone who is still with me and everyone who has followed this! Almost done with this story, but there will be more, I promise! **

**Also, if any of you want a song to go along with this story, search for "Brave" by Josh Groban on youtube. **

**Comments have been scientifically proven to produce faster updates!**

**P.S. I will be re-structuring this story at some point, just putting in some different chapter breaks or whatever...**


	10. Chapter 10

"Where to next?" As soon as the pair had re-entered the TARDIS, the Doctor had begun to race around the console, flipping switches, hitting buttons, and twisting gears, sending the machine into the vortex. "We could go to Space Florida, if you're feeling like some sun and sand. Or we could do some time traveling - backwards, forwards, whichever you please!

"Actually, Doctor, I was thinking that...maybe I could go home now...just for a while."

"Sure, whatever you want," he replied, face blank as stone. She looked scared enough to have asked him, and there was no way he would let her see how much he was hurting inside. Besides, he couldn't blame her; she had almost died, after all. And on another planet, no less.

In a few moments the TARDIS had landed with a bump, and the Doctor and Bridgette stepped outside. The Doctor tried to keep his distance; he hated saying good-bye.

"So," Bridgette asked, "how long have I been gone?" She looked up into the sky at the dark clouds that were still rolling in. Perhaps she could feel the Doctor pulling away and was trying to break the ice.

"Oh, not long; a few minutes maybe." He had to do something; he couldn't just let her walk away. He needed her. "You know, it is a _time_ machine. We could travel for years and you'd never miss a thing."

"Doctor," Bridgette sighed, "I'd get older, and I've got so much ahead of me. I'll be graduating from high school next spring, and then college in the fall; I can't miss that. I need to live my life."

"I understand. Have a fantastic life, Bridgette." He smiled wistfully and, with that, he turned back to the TARDIS.

"Doctor, wait!" He turned back to her.

"If you ever need someone to, you know, travel with, occasionally, someone to share-everything-with once in a while, look me up, alright? I'll be here, or somewhere. But you've got a bloody brilliant blue box, so I bet you'll be able to find me. Okay?"

This time, his smile was genuine. "Sounds fantastic!"

Suddenly, they were hugging. Two friends who had saved the world together, the Doctor thought, and he was glad that it wouldn't be the first and last time.

They broke apart at last, and the Doctor again turned back to his ship, but a question popped back into his head and he whirled around; now it was his turn to catch his companion's attention: "Bridgette!"

She had begun to walk back to her house, but turned at the sound of her name: "Yeah?"

"There's still something I don't understand. When I first met you, you said that you 'used to' have problems with anxiety."

"The simple answer is medication. Therapy didn't help, but the meds did, and now I've got a whole new life. It was amazing, being able to do things without having to worry about everything. Lately, I've been thinking about cutting back, maybe seeing if I could handle my fear on my own. But when the daleks...well, I started to think that maybe I was getting worse, rather then better like I thought."

The Doctor shook his head in amazement; he had never met someone so young who was so strong.

"Doctor?"

"Yeah?"

"Thanks."

The Doctor nodded, waved, and went back into the TARDIS.

The sky rumbled, the storm almost overhead. "See you later, Doctor!" Bridgette yelled, and she waved back until the great blue box had disappeared from sight.

And at that moment, the heavens opened, and Bridgette ran back into the house.

* * *

**I FINISHED IT! I'm so pleased! When I print it out, it will be about 16.5 pages!**

**I'm so proud of myself!**

**Anyways, I will be (hopefully) be going back and editing this at some point, or at least re-structuring the chapter breaks. Any suggestions? Comments? PLEASE, I'M DESPERATE FOR FEEDBACK! Any ideas for future stories? I'm thinking about maybe doing something with Eleven. Thoughts? **

**And yeah, the stuff about the anxiety disorder is true, so if you ever want to talk to me about it or have other questions, I'd be happy to help! Cheers and all that jazz for everyone who read this, favorited, followed, etc. I LOVE YOU ALL!**

**Tomorrow is November 23, right? :) **

** ~Bridgette (Scholar of Imagination)**


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